Study Hacks

A True Story

I’ve been preaching recently about the importance of simplifying your college life. To help put some faces to the theory, I want to share with you the story of Kristianne (not her real name), an undergraduate at a western university. Inspired by my recent post on How to Be Happy, Kristianne shared with me her own story of transformation. In this tale, she took a machete to her overcrowded schedule and pruned it down to a few points of meaningful focus. The results have been nothing short of outstanding.

Kristianne details the whole saga in the following interview…

What were you involved with before you simplified your life?

During my freshman year, I tried to join everything (and I mean everything). I was the VP of the Asian-Pacific American Association, staff writer for the student newspaper, in the Honors program, a member of the Alpha Epsilon Delta pre-med honor society, giving tours, hosting students for admissions, and, it seemed, constantly volunteering to do all these small things for people.

Ignoring my already frustrated self, I took on even more during my sophomore year. I moved up to associate editor with the paper, gained a leadership position for AED, and became a liturgical minister for masses throughout the week.

What was your life like under this big load of commitments?

I was definitely hard-pressed for time. Add that to my perfectionist mentality for my homework, and — surprise — I was barely getting enough sleep. I often pulled double all-nighters and once, even, a triple all-nighter!

A lot of people didn’t know the frustration I felt trying to keep up. I think trying to keep my unhappiness a secret was perhaps the most tiring of all.

What made you finally reevaluate your lifestyle?

The worst came last semester. I had agreed to be editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, and, for some reason, agreed to become the Intern for Admissions, while still doing everything else.

There were just too many times last semester when my “energy reserve” simply ran out. I soon found myself requesting extra time on even small assignments.

Enough was enough.

Describe the changes you made.

This semester, I definitely took control over my own schedule and lifestyle. I resigned my leadership position for the APAA — too much time required for too little actually being accomplished. I also blocked spots in my schedule (especially at night), during which I refuse to work. That time is for me to sleep, watch T.V., cook…or whatever I want, so long as it’s not school or extra curricular related. For the AED honors society, although I am still a member, I’ve cut back the amount of time I’m obligated to spend. I’m good friends with the president, so I can still keep up to date and help out with activities when I can.

With the Admissions internship, I’ve learned to say: “I have enough for this week, can I get this to you by next week?” I still get things done, but without feeling so overwhelmed.

I still serve as a liturgical minister, but only specifically chosen days where I know I don’t have something big coming up, like a test or paper due.

How did these changes affect your daily life?

All the small changes added up to a lot more free time, and generated confidence-boosting results.

Do you fear cutting back will make you less accomplished?

Not at all. Since cutting back, I’ve received a competitive summer scholarship at Notre Dame. I also got research grants to work with my Organic Chemistry professor, and another scholarship to attend the Democratic National Convention (something that usually costs $10,000, and is also very competitive). And that’s not all, I also got into the Jesuit Honor Society (also extremely competitive, only accepting less than 4% of the top 15% of students).

The big revelation is that now I don’t feel so obliged to fill my resume with mediocre extras. I can finally accept what my teachers were telling me in high school, and my professors have been telling me since freshman year: I am a smart, capable student and shouldn’t worry so much about my abilities.

What activities are you focusing on now that you’ve simplified?

I’m in the honors program, I have an interdisciplinary academic focus, and I now focus seriously on just two extracurricular activities: the paper and the admissions internship. As my recent awards attest, this is more than enough.

In fact, I’ve arranged to drop my internship for next year to take time to spend on my upcoming honors thesis. (Last semester, I would have just added it on and let the stress pile.) I realized that producing a great thesis is more important to me than worrying about an Internship that takes too much time (9 hours a week), and which won’t contribute to my future interests.

Final thoughts?

Taking control of my schedule has been one hell of a confidence booster. It’s not as scary as you think. Try it.

Some Points to Notice

There are few interesting lessons lurking in Kristianne’s tale. First, notice how she suffered from the incredibly common undergraduate apprehension that the way to be successful is to do as much as possible. I see this all the time. Indeed, it is probably the most common cause of problems when I talk with students. Being busy is fine. It’s when you get to that point that you lose control of your schedule that the real stress (and triple all-nighters, and unhappiness) takes over.

Next, notice how after she simplified her schedule she realized that she needed only a small number of core activities to show off her abilities (and earn her a huge number of awards). In Kristianne’s case, here is what makes her impressive:

• Good grades.
• An interesting, interdisciplinary major.
• Her role on the student newspaper.

The other stuff was fluff. Sources of stress that didn’t add much to her life or her story.

Finally, I think the biggest point: Kristianne did not abandon all of the other activities that she was interested in. She did no stop giving masses, or resign her AED membership, or quit the Internship (yet). Instead, she simple transformed them from obligatory to non-obligatory. She renegotiated her involvement such that she could be involved when she had time, and not feel guilty about ignoring them when her schedule gets tight.

This a crucial subtlety to the Radical Simplicity Manifesto. You don’t have to do very little. You just need very little that you have to do. Kristianne demonstrates this beautifully.

Think about her story for a moment. Then ask yourself an important question:

How would your schedule change if you were to tackle a similar program of simplification?

The Fitness Guru Speaks

In January of this year, Adam Gilbert, a recent college graduate, left his high-prestige job at Ernst & Young to start My Body Tutor, a web-based company that has Adam, and his team of trainers, work daily with clients, through e-mail and phone, to help them lose weight and get into exceptional shape. The company has exploded in growth recently on the strength of its results. In addition, Adam recently signed on with Conde Naste to become one of their new fitness columnists.

A couple weeks back I asked you to send me your questions about health and fitness at college. I sent the best to Adam, who was kind of enough to provide us some of his expert wisdom…

I’m often tired in class and have a hard time concentrating while studying. What can I do to maximize my energy in the day? Specific food? Exercise? Powerful, powerful Drugs?

Exercise will make a huge difference. It helps you sleep better at night and feel better during the day. Also, make sure you are eating properly. If you don’t eat properly, it can make you feel tired. It’s very important to eat healthy, balanced meals so that your body gets the nutrition and energy it needs. Are you getting enough sleep? One of the most common reasons for feeling tired is not getting enough sleep.

I’m in a frat, so I drink a fair amount. And that probably won’t change. How do I avoid the dreaded beer gut?

To avoid the dreaded beer gut you simply have to burn as many calories as you consume. If you consume more calories than you burn you will gain weight.

Here’s a simple rule of thumb: If you’re going to drink 2-3 nights per week you want to be exercising at least 2-3 times per week for 30 minutes or more. Ideally, you would push this to 3-4 times per week. Remember: Something is always better than nothing!

Another tip: Do you eat late at night? (Something that seems to go along with drinking.) Don’t! You can easily consume an extra 500-2000 calories by eating those beloved cheese fries, wings and pizza.

Do you have any top-secret, dark magic get ripped fast type of gym tricks that I should know about?

I’ll let you in on a secret.

Do you want to lose 20 pounds fast? The easiest, surest, most effective way I know: saw off your leg!

In all seriousness, you have to make eating healthy and exercising a part of your lifestyle. There is no doubt that you feel better, perform better and live better when you do this. No excuses.

Jessica Crowell resides in two very different worlds. After graduating from the University of North Carolina last spring, she continued her role as the Chief Financial Officer for Size Me Up, the online business she helped invent with her friend Melissa Adelman (who was profiled recently in this same series).

At the same time, however, Jessica keeps a foot solidly in the world of big business finance with her “day job” as an Interest Rate Derivate Analyst for Wachovia Securities.

We asked this multi-focused wonder to reflect on the lessons of her college experience.

What did you get right during your time at college?

I recognized early on that learning was more important than trying to get a 4.0. My opinion is that taking slacker classes that don’t interest you just to boost your GPA or pick up a credit is a waste of time. While many of my friends were taking geography 101, I decided to enroll in an upper level class on Emerging Market Economies…I worked really hard, but in the end, it completely paid off. I learned tons and networked with people that I never would have met otherwise. Since then, I made it a point to consistently pick classes that both interested and challenged me even if I would have to work harder to get the grades I wanted.

What would you do differently if you could do it again?

I would have gotten more involved in the international programs on campus. After being an exchange student myself during the 2nd semester of my junior year, I realized what an awesome experience it is to form connections with other students from around the world.

What is the single most important piece of advice you would give a current undergraduate?

Understand that as a ‘college student’ you have many unique opportunities that aren’t necessarily available to so-called normal adults—the two that come to mind are studying abroad and using your ‘student’ status as an excuse to get to know key people both on and off campus. A great example of this is Size Me Up, an online clothing sizing tool that my roommate and I designed during our senior year. By using our University contacts, we were able to network with everyone from former apparel industry execs to Venture Capitalists. We have been able to keep the momentum we generated, however, I think that it would be much harder to gather the type of support we received now that we are no longer in a college environment.

Describe one simple hack you found made your student life easier.

Whenever possible pick your classes based on professors and recommendations from peers that you respect (even if they aren’t in your major or area of expertise). It’s amazing how a great professor can make any subject relevant and memorable. Also don’t forget good professors represent a wealth of knowledge and experiences—take every opportunity to get to know the professors you like personally.

When Melissa Adelman graduated from UNC last May, she faced a hard choice. One month earlier, she had entered a major business plan competition with her idea for Size Me Up, an online company that would provide a tool “that allows users to easily and instantly obtain size recommendations for new clothing purchases based on well-fitting items they already own.” It won the competition and earned Melissa $15,000. Around the same time, however, she also received a lucrative job offer from Deloitte Consulting. What to do? Risk and thrill or security and routine?

Melissa decided to take the plunge: turning down the job offer, she invested her winnings into making her business plan a reality (If you want to help, enter some sizing information at the Size Me Up web site, and potentially win an iPod).

Here are Melissa’s reflections on her college experience:

What did you get right during your time at college?

I got really involved in activities outside of my classes that enhanced my overall business education and college experience. For example, I participated in the Carolina Challenge [ed: business plan competition] during my junior and senior year, which taught me how to apply what I learned in my business classes to real-world situations. The reverse was true as well: the real-world experience I got from the Carolina Challenge helped me succeed in my classes. Although I ultimately won the prize money, I’d say that the experience and network I gained from the Carolina Challenge was even more valuable to me as a young entrepreneur.

What would you do differently if you could do it again?

I would have launched my business earlier so that I could have had even more of a head start before I entered the real world. However, I’m really happy with my college experience and I would have had to sacrifice other areas, such as my grades, to launch the business.

What is the single most important piece of advice you would give a current undergraduate?

Follow your passion! College is the time for you to explore your strengths and interests. While it is great to have direction, don’t come into college with a 100% preconceived notion of what career path you’ll take. Your parents and other advisers may put pressure on you to follow a certain career, but ultimately, you have to be happy. For example, I knew I wanted to do something in business and I am strong in math, so everyone’s advice to me was to become an accountant or investment banker. It’s easy to take the safer route and do what “makes sense,” but at the end of the day, you have to be passionate about what you do because it becomes a big part of your life when you graduate.

Describe one simple hack you found made your student life easier.

Surround yourself with positive, bright, and supportive people! They will support you as you follow your passion and encourage you to push yourself to a new level of greatness.

I’m inaugurating a new regular feature for the blog: If I could do it again. The idea is to interview recent college graduates doing interesting things and ask them to reflect on what they did right during college and what they would do different.

Our first victim is Michael Simmons, a graduate of NYU, who is the co-founder of the Extreme Entrepreneurship Education Corporation, a company which publishes books, operates a successful college road tour, and owns the goal-oriented social networking site Journey Page. Michael’s been featured on CBS, ABC, NBC, and USA Today, and was named one of Business Week’s top 25 entrepreneurs under 25. (He’s best known, however, for co-founding a high school dot-com with a dashing and brilliant classmate who went on to write a pair of book about doing well at college.)

SH: What did you get right during your time at college?

Michael: I spent a lot of time building relationships with the administrators
(professors / deans / advisers / president / marketing / etc). These
relationships helped me become aware of and receive great opportunities.

SH: What would you do differently if you could do it again?

Michael: I would have studied abroad in a third world country.

SH: What is the single most important piece of advice you would give a current undergraduate?

Michael: Contemplate your goals for life and college and then make them happen no
matter what. Otherwise, you’ll end up following somebody else’s goal for
you.

SH: Describe one simple hack you found made your student life easier.

Michael: During the first week of every semester, sit in on as many classes as
you can and then drop the classes you don’t like. I found that professors have more of an impact on my enjoyment of a class rather than the topic. Beyond a professor’s reputation and curriculum vitae, it is really difficult to know whether or not you’ll like the professor until you seem him/her in action.

[Originally sent to Study Hacks Newsletter on 6/4/07]

My friend Ben Casnocha recently published his first book, My Start-up
Life: What a (Very) Young CEO Learned on His Journey Through Silicon
Valley. Ben has an interesting story to tell. He first got involved in
the tech boom when he was 12, and by high school he was heading a
multi-million dollar company. What makes his book interesting,
however, is that it bypasses the rah-rah, self-congratulation common
among the young entrepreneur set, instead capturing, with remarkable
lucidity, the complexities of trying to balance being a teenager and
running a business. It also replaces the generic advice endemic to the
genre (”follow your dreams and it will all work out”) with practical
mediations on issues such as the role of luck in big successes and the
proper care and feeding of mentors. The overarching theme of My
Start-up Life is that many of the skills related to entrepreneurship
can be applied to any endeavor.

What makes Ben relevant to Study Hacks is that he is heading off to
college in the fall. I thought it would be interesting to interview
Ben regarding how his experiences will shape his path through higher
education. Our conversation is reproduced below. For more information
on Ben, his book, or his popular blog, check out
http://www.mystartuplife.com.

STUDY HACKS: Your book promotes the idea of being “CEO of your own
life.” What does that mean?

BEN: It means adopting the entrepreneurial world view in all that you do — not
just starting a business. It means thinking different, challenging the
status quo, striving for impact, and generally maintaining a commitment to
carve your own life path and not outsource that vital task to anyone else
like a parent or professor.

SH: You’re heading off to college in the fall. How do these ideas
apply to this new environment?

BEN: To be CEO of your college life means you will think about what you really
want to get out of it. You won’t just accept the default. You won’t just
sign up for random classes. You will talk to people, cold call professors,
sample widely, ask for exceptions, explore nooks and crannies; in short, you
will be entrepreneurial in how you create a four year experience.

SH: How does the social aspect of college integrate into this
framework? Or, in other, cruder words: is it possible to be CEO of
your own life and still get chicks?

BEN: Absolutely.

SH: But are you worried about not conforming to the typical behavior
of your fellow undergraduates? That is, downplaying work, and trying
to act uncaring. How do you think they will react to someone who is
following the beat of his own drummer?

BEN: I will conform a little. To be part of a group, we all need to give up a
little of our individuality. However, in general, I think college is the
time when most of us begin to extend ourselves in new directions, so I’m
expecting that “beating on your own drum” will be embraced more than in high
school.

SH: Let’s get specific: name three things you plan to do in your first
year of college to help you get more out of the experience than the
average undergraduate.

BEN: 1. Reach out to 5-6 professors who won’t be teaching me but who sound
interesting anyways. Take them to lunch. 2. Engage in the ecosystem
AROUND the college. For me, this is Los Angeles and all that it
offers. 3. Talk to the Registrar and Dean about flexibility in my
schedule so I can ursue various extracurricular activities. In high school, I had great
success at persuading them to loosen the normal academic requirements and
schedules.

SH: Give an example of an extracurricular activity that would require
a special course load.

BEN: Anything that’s both extensive and intensive. Extensive means it involves a
wide range of activities (starting a business certainly is extensive) and
you probably have to be in various locations. Intensive means it has to
consume a lot of energy to be done right.

SH: Another specific question: how does your experience as an
entrepreneur affect how you will tackle schoolwork?

BEN: I will strive to pass my classes but not over optimize. The reason most A+
students don’t make good entrepreneurs is because they don’t settle for good
enough. I pay close attention to diminishing returns. I want to get as much
as possible out of each class I take, and once I’ve reached that optimal
point, devote the rest of my time and energy to other activities. This may
mean that for some classes I spend little time if they don’t seem
stimulating.

[Ed: We’ll have to introduce Ben to STRAIGHT-A — with the right
strategies, there is little difference, in terms of effort, between
learning the material and scoring top grades.]

SH: Let’s do a sample scenario. I’m an undergraduate. I’m not quite
sure what I want to do with my life, but I’m ambitious, and would like
to do something big and important before I graduate; I just don’t know
how. One thing I’m really interested in is clever technologies for
helping to reduce global warming. Give me a battle-plan for
jump-starting my life.

BEN: First, figure out if you’re really interested in clever technologies to
reduce global warming. Many people think they are interested in something,
but turn out not to be. This is because we tend to absorb the interests of
others as our own.

The best way to figure out what you’re interested in is to expose yourself
to as much random stuff as possible. Sure, go to a few green tech
conferences and do some research online, but also do other things. Explore
some secondary interests. Talk to a priest and then a workaholic tech
entrepreneur. Get varying perspectives. You’d be surprised how many people
respond graciously to a stranger who reaches out and asks for their
perspective.

Then get going. If you do indeed decide to try to fight global warming,
start taking action, start doing things, and build your plan as you go.

SH: What’s the most frustrating misperception people tend to generate about you?

BEN: Hmm. Perhaps that I’ve figured out all the answers. I still have
much to learn. A little youthful success is far from total
understanding.

SH: Do you feel like people expect you to do something amazing at
college? Do you expect this of yourself?

BEN: I think there is always pressure to one-up yourself at each new stage. I
feel that pressure, yes. But it’s not crippling. As for expectations, I
consider the expectations of others, but it’s subordinate to my own
expectations and desires. This is a key distinction. Fundamentally, the more
intrinsically motivated you are the better.

[Originally sent to Study Hacks Newsletter on 2/21/07]

At a talk I gave recently at Dartmouth, I spent some time
discussing the art of accomplishing big projects. I received some
interesting feedback from the students, and now I want to explore this
idea further.

Clearly, this issue is topical to academics, as what is a major term
paper or research endeavor if not a big project? But it goes beyond.
The happiest, most interesting and successful people I have
encountered tend to be those who have completed at least one or two
major, passion-fueled projects – be it writing a book or starting an
international non-profit organization.

A couple months ago, I began sending around an e-mail, addressed to
the most productive people I know. It asked for answers to a basic
question: “what separates a talker from a doer.” That is, what
separates a person with big ideas from a person who executes those big
ideas? Below, I have excerpted some of the more interesting points
from this discussion.

What Separates a Talker from a Doer?

Ben Casnocha

Here are some differences I see:

1. People who get stuff done maintain a high commitment to themselves.
They don’t want to let themselves down. The chief motivation to
achieve comes from within, not external factors. It is very easy to
not keep promises you make to yourself (”Gee, I think I’m going to
stop smoking” or “Gee, I’m going to join the gym this month”).

2. People who get stuff done strive for “good enough.” Good enough is
a key principle in entrepreneurship. If your aim is “perfect,” the
future is so far away it may be hard to get going.

3. People who get stuff done think about the short term future - At
the end of meetings, they ask, “So what are the next steps?” It’s easy
to analyze the present or dream about the distant future, but
actionable tasks over the next 2-4 weeks is most important for keeping
the ball moving.

4. People who get stuff done “dream” and “talk” as much as the next
guy, but they share these dreams and ideas with others. By sharing
your intentions with others, you introduce yet another accountability
mechanism.

The action habit, in my opinion, is indeed a learned habit, not a
permanent part of a “successful personality.”

Selected comments from readers of Ben’s blog

I think one piece of the pie regarding “action habits” has to do with
that short term future to a certain degree. But, there is another
facet to it. Namely, being able to consistently 1) prioritize tasks
according to importance rather than urgency, and 2) complete high
priority tasks on a regular, daily basis.

This may sound profoundly stupid, but the most important trait about
doers is that they overcome their fear and take that first step.

Ryan Allis

Well, I don’t know if I have a complete answer, but here are a few
tips from my experience.

1. Don’t bullshit, don’t hype. Sometimes you do need to get certain
people like VCs or the media excited about your company or product,
but do it with real substance whenever possible.

2. Be brutally honest with yourself.

3. Surround yourself with really smart, hard working people.

4. Work hard and intelligently consistently for multiple years.

5. Set goals and write them down.

6. Track the actual results versus the projected results and write
down why you did better or worse than expected on at least an annual
if not quarterly basis. (very key)

7. Don’t jump from project to project. Stick with something dammit.
It’s almost always going to take 5 years to build anything of
significant value. So find a good idea and then run with it. If it
doesn’t work out initially, if the core idea is good, keep at it. It
took us 27 months to get Broadwick to $1 million in sales and just 7
months to make the next $1 million.